Heirs to the Legacy 2: The Story Continues 3 by Andrea Readwolf

A Matter of Heart: Heirs to the Legacy 2 (The Second Set)
A Gundam Wing Fanfiction By: Andrea Readwolf
Email: andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com
Rating: YA/Mature
Families: First Generation
YMC Fam (Yuy-Maxwell-Chang Family: Trinity, Mara Jade, and Dylan);
Winner Fam (Quatre + Trowa, Triton&Tristan, and little sis Calista)
Peacecraft Family (Zechs Marquise/Milliard + Lucrezia/Noin Peacecraft, Kit/Katarynna, Adrian, and Nicolette/Nicole)
Mazzolla Family (Mariemeia + Jake Mazzolla {OC}, Julian)
Catalonia-Dorian Family (Dorothy Catalonia + Relena Dorian, Regina)
Une-Po Family (Lady Une + Sally Po, Marie Une*, Michael Braddocks, Mark Braddocks, Matthew Braddocks)
Families: Second Generation
The Royal Peacecraft Family: King Adrian, Queen Trinity, twins Yuy (10-f) and Maxwell (10-m)
The Winner Family (#1): Tristan + Mara Jade = Meiran (14-f), Dakota (12-f), Jasmine (11-f), Galen (8-m), Bryce (5-m), Adrianna (4-f), Fletcher (2-m), Hakeem (8 1/2 PN-m) *(a lot ^__^'')
The Winner Family (#2): Triton + Katarynna (Kit/Kat ^__^v) = Gabriel (6-m)
Pairings: Dylan Maxwell + Nicole Peacecraft (hoped for by Nikki); Julian Mazzolla + Calista Winner (hoped for by Julian) [AN: has anyone else noticed that really on Trinity and Adrian *wanted* each other from the first? None of this 'hoped for' business...] Archive: Yes-- www.gwaddiction.com
Warnings: The following story contains scenes that are humorous, sappy,fluff, with rampant Incoherence, random PoV switching, and Sexual innuendoes abound.
Original Characters are presented; all characters are IC according to the author's interpretation of them. Mainly heterosexual situations, with hints of YAOI and YURI (from the "older" crowd... and *some* references to Dylan's past).
Spoilers: None to the original Gundam Wing Series at first; However, once Julian has been commissioned by Calista for a special project, expect a lot of rehashing of the series. It would be a plus to have read the previous Matter of Heart Series Arc stories: "Dance of the Heart" Arc and "Oh Baby, Baby" Arc. "Heirs to the Legacy" is built off of the stories forming "Traditions".
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored.
Acknowledgements: It's been three years... Three long bloody years. Hn. And this damn story *still* isn't finished! Acknowledgements go out to all the people who have helped me throughout this incredibly long Series--it ain't over yet! Special Thanks go out to Zan, who must be my longest-kept beta-reader to date! (And also a very good friend.... "How many more days till A-kon?" "AW-what?" "What to you mean it's pronounced 'yeowie'? It's spelt like 'ya-o-ee'." "Okay, now, seriously here; how squicked out do you think people will be if I happen to mention the sexual relationship between the twins? I mean, Triton and Tristan are very affectionate and all, but...." ^___^)
Notes: This is the story of the children, the nine children of the 6 gundam pilots (Heero--Zechs) plus the grandchild of Treize Khushrenada. This story will not focus primarily on the characters from the series, but rather, the generation after them. This story is not for all die-hard fans, but runs along the lines of a more original piece.
Additional Note: 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 often times refer to each other as "husband" [and thus the grandchildren might at one point refer to all five men (six in Zech's case) as "grandfather"]; please refer back to "Promise of the Rings" Part 13 if this causes confusion.
Additional Note 2: The chibis often times refer to their parents' friends and partners as "Uncle" or "Aunt"--in this case, the term is used simply as one of respect since, with the exception of Kit & Adrian's relation to Relena, all of Quatre's sisters, and Trowa's Catherine, none of the parents really have siblings.
Additional Note 3: As hinted at in Heirs to the Legacy #1, Zechs and Noin have separated. Zechs has somehow been coerced into living with our boys at Emerald Gardens (we've had the 5-somes; anyone up to a 6-some?)

***These stories and the ideas contained within are copyright of the author. No reprinting or posting without permission of said author. ***

Heirs to the Legacy 2: The Story Continues by Andrea Readwolf

Part Three

-Miami, Florida, USA 2nd of February AC 242-

Julian woke up feeling slightly surreal. Looking up at the tan ceiling, he immediately knew he wasn't in some generic hotel. At the same time, the sheets against his skin felt too silky to be regular old-fashion cotton, and the light pouring into the room was from a large window front, not some miniscule window with a bulking air conditioner sticking out of it. He waited for his eyes to adjust before turning his head to look out.

Sky. He was looking out through sheer curtains into rich blue sky. Earth, yes, he was on Earth. No where else could one see such a sky. Yes, beautiful Earth. But where...?

And just as suddenly, he was wide awake, running the events of yesterday through his mind in a mechanical manner, processing and filing everything away. It was a gift of his to be able to handle information in this manner, but it could also be a curse. For instance, at the moment his mind was working over the happenings of last night, when they had arrived at Calista's condo.

A naked man, obviously at home in her apartments. Calista obviously knew who he was and why he was there, although, he shouldn't have been there. What was his name? Ah, yes, Calista had called him 'David'. Why had David been laying on Calista's sofa, naked?

There could have been several answers, all just as possible.

Maybe he was Calista's boyfriend. Maybe he was an ex-boyfriend? He could be... could he be a... a prostitute, maybe? No, that was a bit far-fetched, ne? No, the way she'd spoken to him, not actually talking with him, but ordering him... and the way David responded.

Julian had heard of something similar to what he had seen, but he'd never really put an interest into such things. He'd never thought someone he knew...some one in his family circle... would practice such things... But if it was true... it would have fit with what had happened last night, what Julian had seen. 'David' had behaved like a submissive slave, Calista in absolute control, the dominate mistress.

He would have to think about this later. It was definitely a new puzzle-piece of the engaging enigma that was Calista Winner. However, he had another book signing to go to today before catching a shuttle... to... was it Orlando today? Or Jacksonville? How many days did he have left in this tour anyway? Only 3 more months. At least he would be able to make it back to Mars for Leah's birthday.

Getting dressed, Julian retrieved his wallet from the dresser and flipped it open, smiling sadly into the bright shining face that beamed back at him. His daughter, Leah, at her sixth birthday party. Behind the first was another of the same girl, a little older. Last year's fourth grade school photo. Behind that, a series of baby captures of the same girl. And then a wedding picture. The bride in bleach white, smiling properly at the camera, her groom in dove grey. Her yellow blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun; his dark auburn hair was clipped short. They made a handsome couple, Julian had to admit, if not a loving one. Even Lillian had agreed they shouldn't have married.

It made him sad, yes, and lonely. He did love his ex-wife, but he was never in love with her. It had not been a bitter divorce for them. And if their daughter lived with her mother, it was only right. After all, Lillian was home a lot more often than he was, but Julian did make the effort to get back to his daughter as much as possible. On summer breaks, Leah would even come with him, travelling from city to city, taking a day or two off to visit an amusement park. He didn't want his daughter to not know him. He wanted her to know he loved her very much.

His mother showered extra attention upon her granddaughter and constantly berated her son for not staying home with his daughter. It made him feel terrible, but he didn't think there was anything he could do to change the way things were. And then... and then Lillian had been diagnosed with cancer. It was crazy, in this day and age, but it was true, and very, very deadly. All of a sudden, his ex-wife was living on borrowed time. They had made the decision not to tell Leah. It was not easy.

"What are you doing?"

Julian looked up and furiously swiped at the tears that had started moistening his eyes. Calista didn't wait for an answer as she strode into room, taking the wallet from him and flipping it back to the front.

"Your daughter?" she questioned, studying the image, looking for traces of Julian in the face, and seeing them.

"Leah," he supplied.

"She's really cute," Calista offered. "I bet ya miss her, huh?"

"Yes," Julian sighed, slipping the wallet back into place in his back pocket.

Calista looked at him, hard, as if trying to find something out. Whether she found it or not, he didn't know, because she turned around, calling over her shoulder, "Come on, let's get some breakfast. I know this great little bakery called 'Grandpa's'."

Nicole woke up. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but after finishing her cup of tea she'd realized just how exhausted she was and she'd lain down just to take a nap.

'A nap that just happened to last ten hours,' she told herself annoyingly.

"You're awake," a quiet voice predicted.

Startled, she turned, rolling, and would have almost rolled off the bed if Dylan hadn't caught her.

"Jumpy in the morning, aren't we," he teased, grinning.

"Only when I wake up and discover I'm not alone in bed," she replied, stretching. "I didn't hear you get back."

"No, you were sound asleep, so I decided not to wake you." Dylan reached out and brushed a stray curl back from her face. "When did you change your eyes to green?" he asked, frowning slightly.

"It's part of myauuuhh--" a big yawn interrupted her reply, "character," she finished, scrubbing sleepers from her eyes. "Yuck, I'm going to need to take them out and clean them, though."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I stopped long enough to grab a couple of your things, then, huh?" Dylan smiled, rolling of the bed easily and walking into the bathroom. "I hope you don't mind me going through your things?"

"Mmn, that's fine, thank you," Nicole replied, getting up also and following him into the bathroom.

"It's just a few things," he repeated, shrugging. "I didn't see anything out of place in your rooms, so I guess you can go back there tonight. But you should be careful."

"Oh."

Now that wasn't right. That sounded a lot smaller and more disappointed than it should have. She should be happy that should could go and sleep in her own bed, right? She should be happy that she wasn't going to be babied tonight. She should...

"Do you think I could stay here, instead?" she heard herself ask. "I mean... I really haven't been sleeping too well, and last night..." She couldn't look at him. What if he said no? "Last night was the first night in a while that I've actually been able to sleep."

He didn't say anything, and Nicole felt like a dumbass fool for asking him something like that. She turned to leave the bathroom, but a hand on her arm stopped her, pulled her back, and suddenly Nicole felt herself being engulfed in a huge bear hug. It had been a long time since someone had hugged *her*. She'd forgotten how good it felt.

"I'll let Madame Lafayette know you'll be staying here for a while," Dylan whispered against her ear. "I'm sure she won't mind."

And then he released her and walked back into the bedroom. From inside the bathroom, Nicole could hear the door to the compartment open and close again. He... he was going to let her stay. She would be staying with Dylan.

Nicole didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both, in the safety of the shower, under the cascade of warm water.

Dylan had a new pet project, but this one was a little closer to home than all the others. He was a good Samaritan not because it gave him a good reputation or anything, but because Dylan genuinely enjoyed helping others. That's why he'd spent the last fourteen years travelling around fixing stuff--stuff from pieces of junk all the way to people's lives. He'd done and seen just about all of it in his travels. Little could surprise him.

Finding out that someone was threatening Nikki Peacecraft's life had surprised him. Surprised and angered him. It was like a direct attack upon his family, and Dylan didn't like that. If anything, he was fiercely protective of his family, even his extended family members like the Peacecrafts. But... this was Nikki. Sweet, little Nikki P. The charming little girl who would beg him to twirl her around and around. The little girl he'd chased around the woods with Julian, laughing and shouting. The little girl who would fall asleep in a lump at his feet.

Watching her sleeping last night, Dylan had seen that little girl again. And just like when they were kids, he'd felt the inane adrenaline rush to protect her from the world and ease all her hurts with a smile.

But they weren't kids anymore. Dylan couldn't just smile and make Nikki's problems go away. They were both adults. Nikki was going strong in her career as a professional actress. Dylan was just a vagabond, a wanderer. Really, he probably had no business hanging around such a popular and important person. It was going to cause tongues to wag, and that could hurt Nikki. He would have to--

He smiled. The answer was simple. His fathers had done it for years. Heck! Technically, he'd even done in on numerous occasions. If he simply passed himself off as Nikki's bodyguard.... He could do it. He could protect her. And he wasn't so self-important that he wouldn't call the officials when things got out of his control. It would mean carrying a firearm, though. That was something he wasn't too thrilled about, but he could do it. Just because he was carrying one didn't mean he had to use it.

He would have to file with his contact in the Preventers, to keep the knowledge from his fathers. They would definitely not be happy if they found out he was walking hot. And he would have to acquire a holster. Or maybe... maybe he could get by without one. It was an unnecessary addition, really.

The more he thought of it, the more the plan became possible--it almost frightened him. But he knew the thought of someone hurting Nikki frightened him more. Of course, he had yet to pass this idea off to her, but there was little reason for her to object, and if she did, he could easily come up with his own set of reasons with which she'd agree.

He quickly informed Madame Lafayette of his new situation, and as predicted, the elderly woman was sympathetic and more than willing to help in any way possible. He thanked her for her support and then headed back upstairs to inform Nikki of his decision, but she was in the shower.

Dylan sighed and plopped down into a chair--the same one Nikki had sat in yesterday--and began mentally working out the kinks in his plan. By the end of five minutes, Nikki was still in the shower and Dylan had finalized his plan of action. He got up to set it into motion. Ten minutes later, he had done everything he could do now, and Nikki was still in the shower. He was beginning to get worried.

"Nikki?" he called rapping on the door.

Almost immediately, her voice replied, shouting, "What?"

He didn't realize how worried he had been until relief washed over him. "Don't stay in there all day," he shouted back, "Or you'll rival a prune!"

As expected, the water turned off shortly.

"Well, excuse me!" she sniffed, flouncing out with a towel cinched under her arms and another draped over her sopping mane. "If you wanted to use the shower, all you had to do was *ask*."

"In a minute," Dylan replied waiting for Nikki to calm down or sit down, which ever came first. "I think you should have a bodyguard."

She stared at him in a mixture of shock, betrayal, and hurt anger. "A bodyguard will only get in the way!" she protested.

"Yes, in the way of you and whoever's trying to harass you," Dylan replied coolly. It wouldn't do to get angry now. He had to stay rational.

"But I don't want some creepy stranger babysitting me!" Nicole cried angrily. "I'm not a child anymore, I'm a grown woman!"

"A woman someone wants to hurt. "

Nicole winced.

"I was thinking..." Dylan continued more softly, "Maybe if I do it for a while, until this whole thing gets resolved, maybe you won't mind so much, and you might actually get used to it after a while."

Julian smiled brightly at the excitedly bobbing woman as she babbled a 'thank you', all the while wondering what he should do next. At thirty, Julian had been blessed with a very lucrative career that he enjoyed and was good at. He had several Bestseller Titles attached to his name, as well as slews of others that had come really close to the top percent. Journalism had been a hobby when he was still a child; having no style preference, he wrote it all. His resume reflected this from the fifteen children's storybooks, five poetry collections, seven science fiction/fantasy novels, two historical novels, seven biographies, 57 news articles, and now his eleventh mystery novel.

He had created a ritual for himself at these book signings. Since his editor and manager had insisted he go to them, Julian had begun mapping out his next endeavour while he was sitting on his ass for six hours, signing his pen name to an uncountable number of books. The problem he was experiencing now, however, was that he wasn't sure what to write next, and it was frustrating him.

He told Calista so when she picked him up for lunch and took him to some place named Jackson's that didn't look like much but made a mean "Everything AND the Kitchen Sink".

"Well," the blonde replied, licking her spoon clean of Chocolate Mint ice cream smothered in caramel and fudge sauce. "What *haven't* you done? Maybe you should try something new."

"I don't know," Julian sighed, contemplating how to get to the strawberry ice cream while avoiding the butter almond and bubble gum flavours. "I mean, I feel like I'm just... lacking the spirit to do something else, I guess."

"Maybe you should take a break, then," Calista suggested reasonably, attacking the Heavenly Hash and Rocky Road on his side of the sink.

"Easy for you to say," Julian lamented, giving up on the strawberry for the time being to capture a spoonful of Cherry Nut. "When was the last time *YOU* took a break?"

"Hn. Point ceded." Calista was quick as lightening. She grinned at him and the chocolate smudge he now sported on the tip of his nose. "That's a good look for you, Jules."

One dark eyebrow rose. "Oh yeah?"

"Now, now..." Calista returned warningly, still grinning. "This is an Armani-Stooler suit...."

They both had to return home to change before going back to work.

He was small for his age, but then there was nothing he could do about that just yet. He had to think. He wanted that chocolate chip cookie sitting on that plate at the other end of the coffee table, but how was he going to get to it? He glared at it, silently demanding it to come to him, but for some strange unfathomable reason, that didn't work. He tried to tell the big people who were sitting around talking over his head, but they plainly couldn't understand baby gibberish or he would've had his plate of cookies much sooner than this.

There was no choice but to try and walk over there. He'd seen the other people doing it, how hard could it really be?

Little Hisoka Winner had no clue that walking was a process that took several months to acquire. At the tender age of two and a half years, Hisoka had spent more time in a hospital crib than on the grubby ground crawling around. Still, there was nothing about to deter the determined tot from the chocolate chip cookie that taunted him from three feet away. Taking a questionable grip on the table, he pulled himself up into a semblance of a standing position and started his quest.

"I told Anne that she should have just let us go in there from the start and fix things, but did she want to listen? Noo?"

"No, and stop belly-aching about it, it's not helping anything."

"It's helping me feel better; isn't that enough?"

"No."

"Hey! Hey, guys, look!"

"Baby-bops, where do you think you're going?"

"Oops! Oops, careful now!"

"I think he wants your cookies, Duo."

"What? You're already trying to steal the food out of my mouth?"

"He learned pretty quick where to go for all the junk food."

"Just what are you trying to imply?"

"Was I vague? I thought I was quite clear."